To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Darzi of Denham on 4 July (WA 206) listing 44 NHS trusts with historic debts, how many of those trusts they expect to have cleared those debts by (a) 31 March 2010, and (b) 31 March 2011; and what action they will take on the governance of those trusts which have not cleared their debt by 31 March 2011. [HL5276]

Of the 44 National Health Service trusts showing a cumulative deficit in their 2008-09 financial accounts, at present seven are no longer expected to be in cumulative deficit by 31 March 2009-10 and a further 10 by 31 March 2010-11.

Any NHS trust that is not planning to be out of a cumulative deficit position by the end of the 2011-12 financial year is expected to have a locally agreed recovery plan in place which details the steps being taken to recover its cumulative deficit position. The delivery against these recovery plans is managed at a local level by strategic health authorities, which are able to take action as necessary in order to ensure these plans are met.